are any of your friends audiophiles?

If you mean friends in town, the answer is no. While I greatly value listening to music and miss it greatly when I travel, I am not a musician. I had one physician neighbor who had a fortune in audio equipment that was dominant in his living room. He listened once to my system and I once to his. We remain friends but do not discuss audio.

I once had a profession pianist friend who had many records. We were in the same gourmet club and once when we were at his house, I said, "Eddie, where do you listen to your recordings?" He took me to a small room with a portable record player in the corner! When I looked shocked, he said "I really don't listen to the music. In my head I note how these musicians chose to play it."

I have friends with a fortune in golf clubs, some with expensive sailboats, some who are preoccupied with political science and their careers, and some for whom wine is their passion, but no audiophile friends in town. I would say, however, that I have many close audiophile friends, probably 10 throughout the country. I see most of them at least once a year and have often traveled to their somewhat distant homes to hear their systems.

Saygrr, I share your experiences. I have known many who used to even attend shows who either now have home theaters or just don't listen at all. For at least two it is the decline in their hearing that may explain this.

I have gotten accustomed to my kids and relatives comments. It helps to be getting to an age where one eccentricities are tolerated rather than dismissed.

Mrtennis, I am sure that pedophiles, etc. do not help. Perhaps we should call ourselves audio or music lovers or audio enthusiasts.

Gawdbless, I used to race catamaran sailboats. If you want to see crazies with a passion, you should see sailboat racers. In the big boats they talk about less expensive tweaks as those costing less than $100,000. It was not that expensive at my level but still crazy.